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Natural Cures for Insomnia/Natural Sleep Aids

Sleep is a fundamental part of life and one of the biggest contributors to your health and well-being. Yet despite the fact that everyone wants and needs to sleep, many people still struggle to get enough rest. One in four Americans develops persistent insomnia each year, and though the vast majority recover, the fact is that most people have nights (or weeks or months) when they’re lying awake at night instead of deep sleep.

Frustrating as this problem may be, it’s rarely permanent, and it’s not untreatable either. Best of all, natural cures and organic sleep aids often work just as well as prescription sleep treatments, meaning you may not need to visit the doctor to fix this health problem. Before you take more serious steps to solve your sleep issues, try nature’s remedies:

Exercise Better

One reason you may not be sleeping well is because you’re simply not very tired. Exercise can help you burn off exercise energy, but you shouldn’t try to exhaust yourself with every workout. Ideally, you get 60 minutes of mild to moderate exercise 5 days a week. Lifting weights, doing cardio, or simply going for walk in your neighborhood all help to literally wear your body out and promote the need for sleep. Beyond that, exercise relieves stress and encourages relaxation while contributing significantly to your overall health and well-being. The right exercise routine can transform your life in many ways, all of which help you sleep soundly night after night.

Fix Your Bedroom

Your bedroom itself could also be causing your restless sleep. If it’s too bright, too loud, or not the right temperature, it inhibits your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. Something as simple as adjusting the thermostat, using a white noise machine, or hanging blackout curtains could solve all your sleep problems. Your bed is another common culprit. An undersized or worn out mattress makes it hard to get comfortable, as does the wrong pillow, sheets, or blanket. Systematically replace what you sleep with and observe the effects.

De-Stress Your Life

Stress can make you feel fatigued while also, paradoxically, making it harder to sleep. It can also compromise your mental and physical well-being in ways that affect your sleep health too. Think of stress as the enemy of sleep, then purse holistic methods for removing it from your life. Those can include keeping a journal where you work through your thoughts before bed, doing some yoga to promote relaxation, or performing a guided imagery exercise to get your mind off negative thoughts. Some people also find progressive muscle relaxation helpful when counting sheep has stopped working. Even just going to sleep earlier can help you avoid stress-related insomnia by giving you more time to fall asleep.

Eat the Right Way

Food can help your sleep or hurt your sleep, both in terms of what you eat and when. Make sure you’re eating enough that you don’t feel hungry late at night, and eat your last big meal at least 3-4 hours before bed. Foods like cheese, almonds, whole-grain crackers and low-fat milk have all been shown to promote relaxation and even drowsiness. Alternately, spicy and fatty foods along with alcoholic and caffeinated drinks can make it harder to sleep. There’s nothing wrong with a light, late-night snack when you’re struggling to sleep (it can even help calm you), just make sure you’re not doing more harm than good by prioritizing eating oversleeping.

Change Your Lifestyle

All of us develop sleep routines, which is a good thing as long as those routines help rather than hurt your sleep. Try to avoid screens of any kind – TVs, phones, tablets, laptops – for the hour before bed, and opt to read, talk, or do something else that’s low-impact and non-digital. Bathing at night can also help because the experience tends to leave people feeling relaxed and refreshed. Consider aromatherapy as well. For some people, scents like lavender, vanilla, or sandalwood elicit a feeling of calm and contentment, but you’re free to use any scent you like. In all cases, take a close look at your nightly habits, and be honest about what’s aiding or obstructing your sleep.

Try a Natural Remedy

Human beings discovered ways to help themselves sleep long before we discovered Ambien and other prescription sleep aids. Natural remedies may not work for you, but you won’t know until you try, and many are quite affordable and accessible. For centuries, people sipped Chamomile tea to relax because the chemical compounds inside chamomile have mild sedative properties. Similar properties are found in St. John’s wort, valerian root, and passion fruit. Natural supplements available over-the-counter like melatonin also have powerful sleep-boosting effects.

Get Natural Sleep the Easy Way at Sit n‘ Sleep

Many things cause insomnia, but when it becomes a persistent problem you need to rule out your mattress as the source. Bad mattresses can cause you to toss and turn at night, wake up feeling groggy in the morning, and deal with aches and pains throughout the day. Worse, one night of bad rest may cause you to have another and another, altering your sleep cycle in ways that aren’t healthy. Fortunately, fixing your insomnia may be as easy as replacing your mattress. When you’re ready to experience the best makes and models in the industry at prices a lot lower than you expected, visit one of the 38 Sit n’ Sleep locations throughout Southern California. You can also explore our entire inventory on our website to identify options you want to lie down on in one of our showrooms. Before or after your visit, contact us at 800-908-0354 with your questions.